Dying battery

[syler]

I have a problem with my Suzuki EN125-2A that has been going on for over a year now, but I have not been riding it for most of that time so I haven't spent to much time looking into it, now I want to start riding it again so I need some help figuring out what the problem is.

The problem I am having is that the battery keeps going dead very quickly, for instance. Over sunday night I gave the battery a full charge and checked the voltage, it was 13.16. Then on Monday afternoon I took it for it's MOT, which is about an hours riding to get it there and home, I then checked the battery again and it was at 12.56, I have just checked it again now and it is at 12.65 so it is recharging a bit. I have already replaced the rectifier/regulator and I am now thinking it's maybe the alternator, but I don't know how I would check that, or check if it was anything else and I do not like playing with electrics (bad indecent as a kid) unless im sure of what I am doing. so does anyone have any ideas what it could be or what to check for?

[N cee thirty]

hi

get a multimeter and connect the wires to the battery,+ on + etc

when running the bike at about 5k revs it should show a voltage of about 14v
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'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

Jewlio Iglesias wrote: I actually did vote BNP once

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

Could just be a knackered battery.
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[doggone]

[Walloper]

I'm betting on the flat battery being goosed too.
Lead acid type batteries get a coating on the plates inside which cannot be removed if left to go flat and kept flat. Recharging regularly stops this irreversible damage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead%E2%80%93acid_battery

New battery 20 40 quid
Halfrauds et al
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[syler]

Thanks for all your replies, I had forgotten to mention that when this problem started I did get a new battery, so unless I got a dodgy battery I don't think it's that. I will check rob yarrr suggestion tomorrow.

[syler]

I just tried measuring the voltage whilst reving it up to 5k and it does not go up to 14v the voltage actually drops a bit.

The voltage has also dropped over night to 12.30

[N cee thirty]

what does it show ? while being revved

next point of call is doing the same where the rectifier is
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'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

Jewlio Iglesias wrote: I actually did vote BNP once

[syler]

It drops to 12.27 while being revved, where would I need to put the multimeter on the rectifier?

I have gone out and bought a new battery since my bike has been standing for a while, but if that works im going to be pissed off because it didn't work when I bought the last one and I was doing a bit of riding at that time.

[N cee thirty]

you should connect it in the place where the rec goes,so like disconnect the rec and where the rec is ment to be put the multi meter in there.


hopefully the rec is just dead and nothing else
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'00 Aprilia RS50 > '92 Honda CG > '99 Yamaha Fazer > '91 Yamaha RXS > '79 Suzuki X5 > 01' Honda Cg > 07' Honda Cg > 82' Kawasaki Z200 > suzuki gsxr 400 gk73a > honda vfr 400 NC30 Mod 2 Passed 09/06/2011

Jewlio Iglesias wrote: I actually did vote BNP once

[syler]

Ok, I took the rec off and put the multimeter on the frame where it was attached and got no reading, have I done that rite?

[Kickstart]

Hi

Most of the time you can only really check the regulator / rectifier by seeing if the battery is charging and by substitution with a known good one.

However you can test the other things in the circuit to exclude them. Main thing is the actual stator. There will be a few wires from the stator to the regulator / rectifier, probably 3 and they will probably be the same colour. With the ignition off disconnect these from the regulator / rectifier, set the multimeter to measure resistance and check that on each pair of the 3 wires the resistance over them is the same.

All the best

Keith
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[syler]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for your reply. I have just had a look, of the 2 blocks that connect to the rec, there is one which has 3 yellow wires and the other has one red wire and one black and white wire, are these what I need to test with the mm?

Also my mm has several ranges for testing resistance, 200, 2000, 20k, 200k and 20m do you know what range I should be using for the test?

Thanks

Gary

[Kickstart]

Hi

It will be the 3 yellow wires you need to check. There are 3 different ways you can chose a pair of these and, on each combination the resistance needs to be the same.

With the mm, try from low ohms and move up until you get a reading.

All the best

Keith
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[syler]

I set it to the lowest ohms and all three point it gave a reading of
0.2 does that sound ok?

[Kickstart]

Hi

Sounds OK.

All the best

Keith
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[stirlinggaz]

check the current coming out out the yellow wires?
set multi-meter to 100v or nearest setting, your looking for 30-60v, or whatever it says in wsm.
if your gettting the required voltage (eg. the bike i just rebuilt, the wsm stated 40-60v & multi-meter showed 53v, so this indicated the charging circuit was ok)
the reg/rec just controls the voltage, ie. brings it down to a steady 12v or whatever, afaik.
i was having the same sort of problem, battery charged up overnight off bike but would slowly lose its charge.
i found the connector block with the 3 yellow wires & was getting 53v out, but when i put multi-meter probes on battery & revved the bike, the voltage wasnt increasing, like it should.
anyway, the 53v reading indicated the charging circuit was ok, the fact that the battery wasnt reading 53v or something silly, indicated the reg/rec was doing its job,so i reckoned it was a dud battery.
so i splashed out 40 quid on a new battery... & it was still the same, this baffled me somewhat(waste of 40 f*cking quid too!).
tried another reg/rec & it was still the same. (i didnt know if the spare reg/rec was any good, as it was in an old box of spares.)
the problem?
turns out i was getting the 53v at the male end of the plug but not at the female end!
once i cut off the offending plug & joined wires with spade connectors, problem solved!
took me a few days to figure that one out,lol
was just a dodgy plug!
cheers,
GAZ

[Kickstart]

Hi

Note if you are checking the voltage at the 3 wires from the stator to the regulator / rectifier, it is an AC voltage and you check this with the engine running and all 3 wires in place connected to the regulator / rectifier (slide the probes of the multimeter up the back of the connector into the regulator /rectifier).

All the best

Keith
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Traxpics, track day and racing photographs - Bimota Forum - Bike performance / thrust graphs for choosing gearing

[syler]

Hello,

I have tried checking the plug as directed, everything was connected, engine running, I put the probes of the mm (set to AC) down the back of the plug with the 3 yellow wires, but I am not getting a reading. It flickers around 0.1/2 if I jiggle the probes around, am I not getting a good enough contact? or am I doing something wrong?

[Kickstart]

Hi

Sounds like you are not getting a good connection. Would expect over 45V ac (actual reading will depend on the bike).

All the best

Keith
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[dotti2009]

This might be of some use:

https://www.bikechatforums.com/download.php?id=74642
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